1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device for curling eyelashes in an upward curl, and more particularly, to a device which is able to create a desired curl or reshaping in less treatment time and of longer duration than conventional eyelash curlers by either the application of pressure alone or by a simultaneous application of pressure and prescribed heat.
2. Description of Related Art
For many years, various devices for use in the curling of eyelashes have been available in order to satisfy the female's desire for enhanced beauty, especially pertaining to the eyes. Some examples include pincer shaped forming devices whose negative results include the undesirable pulling out of lashes during use thereof. Use of a forming liquid is another method for eyelash shaping, and this method often results in stiff, unnatural looking and feeling lashes.
Efforts to overcome the faults of the aforementioned devices resulted in the development of several eyelash curlers such as Korean Utility Model Nos. 81-2113, 83-1178, and 90-7561. Each of these devices uses a battery heated rod, causing the eyelashes to curl upward by slight pressure at the base of the eyelash. Curlers using only the heated rod method of curling lashes suffer from their inability to form the eyelash into a curved shape that follows the contour of the eye since the heated rod can only lift a segment of lashes at a time, requiring repeated applications that may vary in effectiveness according to the proficiency and/or experience of the user. Under these circumstances, a uniform curling angle across all lashes becomes difficult. Additionally, such eyelash curlers using a heat-generating member for increasing a temperature of the device often cannot control the rise in temperature without specially designed controls or interruption of treatment. This results in both an inconvenient and inefficient operation and excessive battery use. Also, the danger of skin or eyelash burn exists and the user is not able to accurately estimate a remaining battery life of the device.
The inconvenient practice of interrupting the operation of the curler in order to sufficiently cool the over-heated heat-generating member will always be present without a method of determining the remaining battery life and will surely cause a more frequent replacement of batteries.
Additionally, conventional eyelash curlers do not have a function to check usable power remaining in the batteries.
Since such conventional eyelash curlers do not have functions to indicate a temperature status of the heater or a battery power status, improper and/or unsafe operations may result.
That is to say, when the power switch is turned "on" to use an eyelash curler, a heater therein starts generating heat and the temperature of the heater should rise to a predetermined temperature prior to use. However, the conventional eyelash curler can not indicate a heated state of the heater so that during operation, the eyelashes fail to form into a well-curved shape or sometimes eyelashes become burned due to over-heating of the heat-generating member.
Further, since conventional eyelash curlers do not have a function to check the state of batteries therein and to indicate a heater temperature status thereof, there is an inconvenient problem such that the power of the eyelash curlers is occasionally automatically turned off during use.